Plate Heat

Exchangers

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International Series on Developments in Heat Transfer

Objectives
The Developments in Heat Transfer book Series publishes state-of-the-art
books and provides valuable contributions to the literature in the field of heat
transfer. The overall aim of the Series is to bring to the attention of the
international community recent advances in heat transfer by authors in
academic research and the engineering industry.
Research and development in heat transfer is of significant importance
to many branches of technology, not least in energy technology. Developments
include new, efficient heat exchangers, novel heat transfer equipment as well
as the introduction of systems of heat exchangers in industrial processes.
Application areas include heat recovery in the chemical and process industries,
and buildings and dwelling houses where heat transfer plays a major role.
Heat exchange combined with heat storage is also a methodology for
improving the energy efficiency in industry, while cooling in gas turbine
systems and combustion engines is another important area of heat transfer
research.
To progress developments within the field both basic and applied
research is needed. Advances in numerical solution methods of partial
differential equations, high-speed, efficient and cheap computers, advanced
experimental methods using LDV (laser-doppler-velocimetry), PIV (particleimage-velocimetry) and image processing of thermal pictures of liquid
crystals, have all led to dramatic advances during recent years in the solution
and investigation of complex problems within the field.
The aims of the Series are achieved by contributions to the volumes
from invited authors only. This is backed by an internationally recognised
Editorial Board for the Series who represent much of the active research
worldwide. Volumes planned for the series include the following topics:
Compact Heat Exchangers, Engineering Heat Transfer Phenomena, Fins
and Fin Systems, Condensation, Materials Processing, Gas Turbine Cooling,
Electronics Cooling, Combustion-Related Heat Transfer, Heat Transfer in
Gas-Solid Flows, Thermal Radiation, the Boundary Element Method in Heat
Transfer, Phase Change Problems, Heat Transfer in Micro-Devices, Plateand-Frame Heat Exchangers, Turbulent Convective Heat Transfer in Ducts,
Enhancement of Heat Transfer and other selected topics.

Series Editor
B. Sundn
Lund Institute of Technology
Box 118
22100 Lund
Sweden

Associate Editors
E. Blums
Latvian Academy of Sciences
Latvia

P.J. Heggs
UMIST
UK

C.A. Brebbia
Wessex Institute of Technology
UK

C. Herman
John Hopkins University
USA

G. Comini
University of Udine
Italy

D.B. Ingham
University of Leeds
UK

R.M. Cotta
COPPE/UFRJ
Brazil

Y. Jaluria
Rutgers University
USA

L. De Biase
University of Milan
Italy

S. Kotake
University of Tokyo
Japan

G. De Mey
University of Ghent
Belgium

D.B. Murray
Trinity College Dublin
Ireland

S. del Guidice
University of Udine
Italy

K. Onishi
Ibaraki University
Japan

M. Faghri
University of Rhode Island
USA

P.H. Oosthuizen
Queens University Kingston
Canada

W. Roetzel
Universtaet der Bundeswehr
Germany

J. Szmyd
University of Mining and Metallurgy
Poland

B. Sarler
Nova Gorica Polytechnic
Slovenia

E. Van den Bulck

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Belgium

A.C.M. Sousa
University of New Brunswick
Canada

S. Yanniotis
Agricultural University of Athens
Greece

D.B. Spalding
CHAM
UK

Plate Heat
Exchangers
Design, Applications and Performance

L. Wang
Siemens Industrial Turbines, Sweden
B. Sundn
Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden
&
R.M. Manglik
University of Cincinnati, USA

L. Wang
Siemens Industrial Turbines, Sweden
B. Sundn
Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden
R.M. Manglik
University of Cincinnati, USA
Published by
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A Catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-85312-737-3
ISSN: 1369-7331
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2002111282
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WIT Press 2007
Printed in Great Britain by Athenaeum Press Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
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recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher.

Contents

xi

Preface
Chapter 1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
Chapter 2
2.1

Basic features and development of plate heat

exchangers...............................................................................
Introduction ...............................................................................
Historical background ...............................................................
Basic principle ...........................................................................
General characteristics ..............................................................

1
1
2
5
6

2.3

Construction and operation...................................................

Gasketed heat exchanger ...........................................................
2.1.1 Corrugated plate patterns..............................................
2.1.2 Geometrical characterization of chevron-type
plates .............................................................................
Evolution of plate heat exchangers ...........................................
2.2.1 Brazed plate heat exchanger .........................................
2.2.2 Semi-welded plate heat exchanger ...............................
2.2.3 Fully welded plate heat exchanger ...............................
2.2.4 Wide-gap plate heat exchanger.....................................
2.2.5 Double-wall plate heat exchangers...............................
2.2.6 Diabon graphite plate heat exchanger ..........................
2.2.7 Minex plate heat exchanger ..........................................
Operation and selection .............................................................

15
17
17
18
19
20
20
20
21
22

Chapter 3
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7

Industrial applications ...........................................................

Food processing.........................................................................
Air-conditioning and refrigeration systems...............................
Service heating and cogeneration..............................................
Offshore gas and oil applications ..............................................
Marine applications ...................................................................
Chemical processing..................................................................
Pulp and paper industry applications ........................................

27
27
29
30
31
32
33
36

2.2

11
11
11

3.8
3.9

Solar energy applications .......................................................... 37

Closing remarks......................................................................... 38

Chapter 4
4.1
4.2
4.3

Materials and manufacturing ...............................................

Plate material .............................................................................
Gasket material..........................................................................
Manufacturing ...........................................................................
4.3.1 Plate-and-frame heat exchangers..................................
4.3.2 Brazed heat exchangers ................................................
4.3.3 Semi-welded plate heat exchangers..............................
4.3.4 Fully welded plate heat exchangers..............................

41
41
43
46
47
48
48
49

Chapter 5
5.1
5.2
5.3

Basic design methods..............................................................

Introduction ...............................................................................
Basic energy balance and design equations ..............................
Thermal design methods ...........................................................
5.3.1 Logarithmic mean temperature difference method ......
5.3.2 The NTU method ......................................................
5.3.3 The PNTU method .....................................................
5.3.4 Sizing and rating procedure ..........................................
Hydrodynamic design methods.................................................
Variable overall heat transfer coefficient ..................................
Thermal mixing .........................................................................

51
51
53
57
58
60
63
63
65
68
70

Single- and multi-pass flow arrangement ............................

Flow arrangement and distribution ...........................................
6.1.1 Flow direction ...............................................................
6.1.2 Pass ...............................................................................
6.1.3 Paths per pass................................................................
6.1.4 Distribution along port manifolds.................................
6.1.5 Distribution inside channel ...........................................
6.1.6 End plate .......................................................................
Pass arrangement classification.................................................
General thermal model ..............................................................
Performance comparison...........................................................
6.4.1 End-plate effect.............................................................
6.4.2 Passage arrangement and flow direction ......................
6.4.3 Number of transfer units...............................................
6.4.4 Heat capacity flow rate ratio.........................................
Guidelines of pass selection ......................................................
6.5.1 Best arrangement within individual arrangement
category.........................................................................
6.5.2 Selecting best arrangement in all categories.................
Correction factors and effectiveness .........................................

77
77
77
77
78
79
79
80
81
86
89
89
90
93
93
94

5.4
5.5
5.6
Chapter 6
6.1

6.2
6.3
6.4

6.5

6.6

94
97
98

Chapter 7
7.1
7.2
7.3

7.4
Chapter 8
8.1
8.2

8.3

Chapter 9
9.1

9.2

9.3
Chapter 10
10.1

10.2

Thermal-hydraulic performance in single-phase flows ......

Introduction ...............................................................................
Chevron-plate performance literature .......................................
Thermal-hydraulic characteristics .............................................
7.3.1 Single-phase convection in = 0 plate channels ........
7.3.2 Single-phase convection in = 90 plate channels ......
7.3.3 Single-phase convection in 0 < < 90 plate
channels ........................................................................
Heat transfer enhancement ........................................................

111
111
113
117
117
119
128
133

Thermal-hydraulic performance in condensers and

evaporators..............................................................................
Flow patterns .............................................................................
Performance of plate condensers...............................................
8.2.1 Fundamental mechanism of condensation....................
8.2.2 Condensation heat transfer ...........................................
8.2.3 Condensation pressure drop..........................................
Performance of plate evaporators..............................................
8.3.1 Fundamental mechanism of evaporation......................
8.3.2 Evaporation heat transfer..............................................
8.3.3 Evaporation pressure drop ............................................

143
144
149
149
152
158
160
161
166
173

Fouling, corrosion, and erosion.............................................

Fouling.......................................................................................
9.1.1 Basic consideration.......................................................
9.1.2 Fundamental mechanism ..............................................
9.1.3 Forms of fouling ...........................................................
9.1.4 Mitigation of fouling.....................................................
9.1.5 Design of PHEs subject to fouling ...............................
Corrosion ...................................................................................
9.2.1 Fundamental mechanism ..............................................
9.2.2 Forms of corrosion........................................................
9.2.3 Control of corrosion......................................................
Erosion.......................................................................................

181
182
182
184
187
193
195
196
197
198
207
208

Extended design and operation issues ..................................

Flow distribution .......................................................................
10.1.1 Mathematical modelling ...............................................
10.1.2 Typical results...............................................................
Numerical prediction of performance .......................................
10.2.1 Problem statement ........................................................
10.2.2 Mathematical modelling ...............................................
10.2.3 Sample calculation........................................................

215
215
216
220
225
225
226
227

10.3

10.4
10.5

Multi-stream plate heat exchangers...........................................

10.3.1 Practical advantages......................................................
10.3.2 Design options ..............................................................
10.3.3 Thermal performance....................................................
Dynamic behaviour ...................................................................
Future developments .................................................................

230
230
231
232
234
236

Appendix

243

Index

267

Preface

Heat exchangers are important, and used frequently in the processing, heat and
power, air-conditioning and refrigeration, heat recovery, transportation and
manufacturing industries. Such equipment is also important in electronics cooling
and for environmental issues like thermal pollution, waste disposal and sustainable
development. Various types of heat exchangers exist. In textbooks of heat transfer,
commonly a brief chapter is provided for the introduction of heat exchangers and
elementary theory of design, rating and sizing are presented. There also exist many
books on heat exchangers either as textbooks or edited volumes. However, most
such books treat a variety of heat exchanger types or specific problems and do not
specialize in any particular heat exchanger type. Therefore, a lack of comprehensive
and in-depth textbooks on specific heat exchangers exists.
The present book concerns plate heat exchangers (PHEs), which are one of the
most common types in practice. The overall objectives are to present comprehensive
descriptions of such heat exchangers and their advantages and limitations, to provide
in-depth thermal and hydraulic design theory for PHEs, and to present state-of-theart knowledge.
The book starts with a general introduction and historical background to PHEs,
then discusses construction and operation (PHE types, plate pattern, etc.) and
gives examples of PHEs in different application areas. Material issues (plates, gaskets,
brazing materials) and manufacturing methods are also treated. The major part of the
book concerns the basic design methods for both single-phase and two-phase flow
cases, various flow arrangements, thermal-hydraulic performance in single-phase
flow and for PHEs operating as condensers and evaporators. Fouling problems are
also discussed and in a section on extended design and operation issues, modern
Research and Development (R & D) tools like computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
methods are discussed. Unique features for PHEs are discussed throughout.
Extensive R & D activities are carried out at companies and universities worldwide
and originally this book was intended as an edited volume reflecting current research
and state-of the-art. However, as time elapsed and the lack of a comprehensive
textbook was identified, the objectives were changed.
We believe this book will be useful as both a textbook at various educational
levels and as a reference source book for PHEs.

We are grateful to the companies providing us with a lot of information on their

products and their R & D works. We also appreciate the cooperation and patience
provided by the staff at WIT Press and for their encouragement and assistance in
producing this book.
Lieke Wang, Raj M. Manglik and Bengt Sundn